Hi, I have considered these solutions, I am really trying to avoid cutting into all that electrical.
I thought though that if I created my own sort of web joists in situ I might achieve the same thing. A series of joined triangles on the surface of the present joist, maybe on opposite faces of the joist then when jacked up into good or at least acceptable alignment then run a bolt through at the bottom so that when the jack is removed the joined bridge work of triangles are held using the original wood joist as the lower cord and I suppose the upper cord as well. The tops could be bolted through pre-drilled angle attached to the top of the side of the joist but one would have to drill angle iron at the bottom of the side I would think to keep them from sliding longitudinally. ----- Original Message ----- From: Paul Franklin To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2009 9:52 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] stiffening inadequate floor joists? Dale, it seems to me that the simplest and most cost effective way to stiffen up your floor would be to sister dimension 2 by 8 lumber on to the existing rough cut 2 by 8 joists. After jacking and leveling each joist you could glue and bolt the dimension 2 by 8 beams to the rough cut joist keeping the bottom edges parallel, thus keeping the sub floor baring on the original joist. You could relocate heating, plumbing and wiring to a chase along the edges of the usable space to preserve head room in the center of the basement. An alternative would be to replace the existing joists with an engineered joist system with an open web, however engineered joist usually are from 10 to 18 inches deep, which would compromise your existing head room. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Leavens To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2009 9:41 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] stiffening inadequate floor joists? Hi, It is too wet outside to do any work and I am contemplating a problem I have had since moving into this old building. The original house has floor joists rough sawn but only 2 by 8 on 24 inch centers. We have a springy and uneven floor. Some of it is also because at some point one of the heating systems required framing in a big cold air return and they clearly didn't shore up the floor when cutting that joist, someone long since removed all of the cross bracing. I don't see sistering or adding joists in the usual way because of plumbing, wiring and duct work and I don't want to add more posts and beams. It recently struck me though that I could build in place an open web joist, jack things temporarily up then fix the lower cord. This lead me to think perhaps a better way might be to jack tings up just a little above the desired point then apply a web of strap steel to either face of the existing joists on the diagonal. A series of 'V's so that the diagonal essentially forms triangles. This would allow me to continue to respect wiring. More stiffening might be achieved by running a length of angle iron along the top inside corner against the floor and the joist and run a bolt through it and the straps and similarly at the bottom of the joist, I wonder how much would be enough and how much too much. At some point it might be better to fabricate individual steel webbed joists and fit them between the originals but then they may serve the purpose of lifting the originals which would continue to be pulling down after nearly a century. Just kicking around ideas. I would like to preserve as much open space there as I can. I don't have reasonable access to engineering or architectural services. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4477 (20091002) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4478 (20091003) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
